The five-day trial was scheduled after lawyers for both
sides met briefly with Justice Ron Veale in the privacy of the court boardroom
March 11. The case management conference was closed to the media and the
public.
The suit against the Yukon government was filed in late
January by Mayo’s Na-cho Nyak Dun, Dawson’s Tr’ondek Hwech’in along with the
Yukon Conservation Society and CPAWS-Yukon.
The four say the government violated the joint land use
planning process agreed to under land claims when it dumped the Peel
commission’s final recommended plan for one more to its liking drawn up by its
own officials.
The commission, made up of appointees from the Yukon and
First Nation governments, spent seven years researching, analyzing and
consulting on how to manage the Yukon portion of the transboundary watershed.
It came up with a plan to protect 80 per cent of the
68,000-sq.km. region - a plan which received widespread public support.
The government’s new plan, which went into effect Jan. 21,
allows industrial development in most of the region, including the contentious
Wind-Bonnet Plume-Snake river region.
Aboriginal claims expert Thomas Berger is leading the legal
challenge for the First Nations and conservation groups. The Yukon government
has hired B.C. lawyer John Hunter to defend it.
Neither Berger nor Hunter were at the Yukon hearing. Yukon
lawyer Stephen Walsh, who appeared for Berger, said the trial date had already
been agreed to beforehand as had other procedural matters so it went quickly
and smoothly.
Meanwhile advocates of Peel protection are planning a
musical rally at the Yukon legislature when MLAs begin the spring sitting March
25. 